And Where Else Would Good Intentions Lead Us
by LeonaWriter
Summary: Shingetsu Rei had learned it from his unwitting mother, that sometimes you do things 'for the best'. The phrase stuck in his mind, for better... or for worse. AU in which Rei is a separate person from Vector.


A small child with bright orange hair and wide, violet eyes looked up at his mother. He held in his hand several cards.

"It... it's no good. I don't think they like me."

"You don't think _who _ doesn't like you, Rei?"

She was on the phone. She was often on the phone, nowadays. But she tried to make time for her young son when she could.

"The cards! I don't think the cards like me. I keep losing."

"Ara, really... Re-chan. My little Rei of sunshine. The cards don't _think_. They just are."

She ruffled his hair, making him squirm where he sat. That wasn't the answer he'd been hoping for. He couldn't get a new one any time soon, though, because she was back on the phone and talking again.

For what felt like the longest time, Rei shuffled through his Elemental Heroes, thinking of that great duelist who'd used them and made them famous, and wished he could live up to that.

He knew how to play. He did. And he knew how that card went with that card, and it caused that effect. But each time he played, the cards wouldn't answer him. So he'd started to wonder whether they even liked him or not.

Finally, at long last, his mother came off the phone. Seeing that he was still looking upset and still looking at the same cards, she rolled her eyes.

"Fine, fine. If you really think like that, maybe it's for the best if you just get new cards, right? You're not going to win if you think like that, are you?"

Rei bit his lip, and nodded, if hesitantly. He wasn't going to throw his Elemental Heroes away, he'd never do that, but maybe... they'd be better off either kept, or with someone else. Someone who knew how to use them properly. Who they liked.

Maybe that would be for the best.

...

They were home, and Rei was tired, and still a little confused as to what had happened.

His mother, as soon as they had come through the front door and taken their shoes off, had sat down on the sofa in the living room and put her head on her hands. This had worried him; he'd never seen his mother like this before, and it felt _wrong._

Rei went up to the sofa, and sat down next to her, feet kicking against the seat.

"Kaa-san? Kaa-san, what's wrong?"

He'd spent the day at school after all, and she had been doing other things. Things that needed smart clothes and nice hair and make-up.

She lifted her head, and he saw that some of that make-up was running, but the next thing that happened was that she snaked an arm out and pulled him up into a hug on her lap.

"Nothing's the matter, Rei-chan. It's all fine."

But it wasn't all fine! He wasn't a grown-up, but he could tell that much. Her eyes were all smudged.

"The divorce was just settled. That's all. But it's okay."

He shook his head.

"But you're upset!"

His mother put a finger softly to his lips, to stop him from saying anything else and to stop him from shaking his head. He went silent, and stared at her.

"It... wasn't working out between your father and I. It's- it's really for the best this happened. Otherwise, we'd have just kept arguing, yes?"

She smiled at him, then.

"Then... then why is Kaa-san crying? If it's a good thing, then why..."

She sighed, and just held him tighter.

"Because sometimes doing the right thing hurts, Rei-chan. Sometimes it hurts, even when it's for the best."

_Oh_.

And the best thing for now, he decided, would be to make sure she wasn't so sad any more. His 'Tou-san hadn't always been nice, that was true, so maybe they _were_ better off like this. He thought he'd start with hugging her back.

...

The last of the boxes were in the van, and Rei stared at what used to be his home for the second time.

He was dealing with it better than he had the first time around, at least. He wasn't asking his mother why they were moving, and why couldn't they stay, he liked it here, he really did!

Still. It hurt, like he was leaving a part of himself behind, and there were memories here, of things he'd done and things he'd gone through. Adventures he'd never have again.

His eyes stung, but he wouldn't cry.

"C'mon, Rei-chan." He was ten now. She didn't have to call him that any more, but he didn't feel like arguing about it just now. "Let's go. The new house is going to be really nice."

"Like our old one was?"

"Mn. Even better."

But she seemed distracted.

"And I'm going to make new friends, and see new things," he said, remembering what she'd told him.

"Mm-hm! And the job offer I had means I'm going to be paid better, so we can afford those foods you really liked more often! See, the move is for the best for both of us, right?"

"Ah, yeah..."

"Hey, cheer up! It won't be that bad! Promise you. You'll have lots of new adventures where we're going now, and you definitely won't regret it!"

...

Two years later, and he was nearly thirteen. Shingetsu Rei was a kid who, to his classmates, tried maybe a little _too_ hard, even if he had the best intentions.

Still, he wasn't the most popular kid in his class. He didn't even have that many friends; everyone knew that he'd moved twice already, and his mother was aiming at another promotion - which would mean another move to somewhere he didn't know again.

Ah, well! It'd be for the best in the end, and he still had his deck. He'd long since moved on from the E-Heroes, and settled at long last on a group of armoured warriors from the stars. Because of her job, his mother had been able to buy him a D-pad and a D-gazer.

He was shuffling through his deck when there was a tap on his window. He looked up, and what he saw caused him to drop the cards that were in his hands and fall backwards onto the floor.

There was an alien looking in through his window.

An alien with grey 'skin', hair, no nose or mouth, and were those wings he saw?

The alien - demon, angel - whatever he was, tapped on the glass.

Rei slowly, very slowly, gathered up his courage, picked up his deck, and edged closer to the window.

_"I don't mean any harm! Please. I just want to talk!"_

He hesitated, drawing back slightly from the voice that was suddenly in his head. But then, before he could decide against it, quickly opened the window wide enough for the being to get inside.

"What... what do you want?"

The strange being held out its hands - his hands, he seemed somehow to be male - in a placating way.

_"Just to talk. Really. Please - help me!"_

"Wh- what? Why? I mean, why me?"

_"Because I think you're the only one who can help me. Please, you have to - there's a being, such a powerful being, and he's here! I've been running for so long, and I don't know how much longer I can keep going like this!"_

"But... what could _I_ do?"

He was just a kid. He wasn't a hero, and he wasn't even that brave.

He did, however, want to do _something_.

_"I've been watching you - you're a good person, I'm sure you could do something!"_

He should have been suspicious from that. But for some reason, he was too distracted by the problem at hand to so much as consider it.

"I... Hn... Well, what have you been able to do before now? Something had to be working!"

_"I - I can disguise myself as a human! But I'm scared. That I've got nowhere to go."_

"What, what do you mean? And how?"

In a few moments, and even then Rei wasn't quite sure what had happened, he saw...

Himself. Looking back at him.

"You... you look... just like _me_."

An idea started to form in his mind. A crazy, somewhat insane idea.

"I do?"

Rei jumped at the sound of the - now _other boy's _- voice being spoken aloud rather than being sent into his head.

"A _lot_. You even sound exactly like me! We could... probably even pass off as twins or something!"

He missed the calculating look in the other's eyes.

"You think so? Ah, that's amazing!"

"What if we switched places? It'd- it'd only be for a short while, yeah? They'd probably not even know anything was up..."

"You'd _do _that? _For me?"_

"You're in danger, aren't you?"

The other nodded vigorously.

"And my whole world! If that person - that _Astral_ - if he reached full power and found me, it'd be really bad!"

"Then," Rei decided, nodding once with determination, "I'll definitely do it! For you! I can't say I'm not scared, but it'd be for the best!"

"Thank you! My name is Vector. And- if you mean it, I have the best idea! If, if you really want to, then you could come to my world! You could stay there while I'm here, and you'd be safe as well! He'd never think to look there, even if he realises you're helping me!"

The idea of seeing other worlds - even just _one _other world - and saving someone, being a hero, being worth so much to one person, it was too much to resist.

Vector held out a hand.

"You're going to have to teach me everything I'm going to need to know about you!"

Rei nodded, and then realised something that caused him to swallow, hard.

"My D-pad and D-gazer! Everyone would notice if I suddenly didn't have them! Or... or my deck... but I suppose that if it's only for a little while, I can leave it with you, right? And you'd take good care of it?"

"Of course I would!"

The next few hours were spent with Rei teaching Vector everything he could about human life, and teaching Vector about Shingetsu Rei, and how to be him.

It didn't look, to Rei, like it would be too hard for him.

In return, Vector told him about the Barian world, and what was goin on there, and the war between his world, and the Astral world.

And the awful, powerful being, whose name was Astral.

...

AN: Inspired by a prompt I gave Tumblr, at first I started roleplaying him on Dreamwidth, and then on Tumblr. I came up with ideas for it, and then thought it'd be best (haha) if I put them down in writing for others to see.


End file.
